holding tail low

[chickwick]

My peasant rock had symptoms of tail pumping, panting and yellowish diarrhea. Our vet treated this with a 2 day course of worming meds I added to their water. The tail pumping, diarrhea, and panting stopped. That was 6 weeks ago. Ever since then, she has carried her tail low and been less social. With this extreme heat she has been even more droopy. This afternoon I finally put her in our cats' kennel and brought her in our house which has AC. I have her in our foyer where it is not as cool as the rest of the house, so she doesn't get too cold. She has perked up, but her tail is still low and she has a bit of a fishy smell about her. Any ideas as to what is going on and what I can do to help her? We haven't had any similar symptoms with any of our other 6 chickens. We have a large shady protected run. I have been giving them cool water and watermelon a couple times a day, sprinkle water in their dust bath area, and have a fan going in part of the run. Thanks in advance for any advise anyone can offer.

 

[2greenboyz]

Hi chickwick sorry you are going thru this. I'm surprised your vet isn't being of more assistance here. Six weeks is a long time for her to be experiencing this. When is the last time she laid an egg? How old is she? I am glad you are keeping her out of the awful heat, that helps. But make sure she stays hydrated - even if you have to offer her droppers of water. Do you know if she is eating, what is she eating and how much? Do you have to hand feed her or is she eating on her own?

Feel her crop, describe how it feels to you. At the end of the day it should be rather firm/solid lump, so does it feel soft or grainy or full? . How about her abdomen - feel that. Is it soft, squishy or does it feel "muscular" and solid. Feel her chest - does it feel rounded or does it feel like a pointy sharp bone with little to fill in the sides of that bone?

Can you tell where the fishy smell is coming from? Get in there and smell her breath, try to determine where the source of the smell is. Again, I am surprised your vet isn't helping here, although I totally understand that they charge for everything and it isn't cheap (been there...). Again, make sure she stays hydrated and encourage her to eat. Plz tell us more how she's doing.

 

[chickwick]

I am sending this a second time, as I think I didn’t send it correctly before. Sorry for repeat if I did.

Hi 2greenboyz. Thanks for the thoughtful answer and questions. I am a new (as of 14 months ago) chicken owner so do appreciate everything! Up now at 1:30 to check on her…
In answer to your questions – I don’t know when she last laid, she is 14 months old, she is eating but I don’t know how much.

She has always been more laid back, and until now, the only thing I observed was that she was a bit more laid back and her tail was low. I was told by the vet that she might need deworming again. We were out of town for the last week and all of those days were 95 – 104. Our housesitter changed water, fed the chickens, and kept an eye on them. Now that we are back I see more change in her.

I checked on her water at 1:30am and she has not been drinking since I brought her indoors. I got out a plastic syringe and added some electrolyte powder to cool water and got her to drink a bit. Rolled oats are her favorite and she fairly eagerly ate some. To encourage her to drink, I put some electrolyte solution and rolled oats in a little cup. She enjoyed that, however only ate maybe a couple teaspoons. Then as I read about chicken anatomy, she started to doze off. I guess it is the middle of the night and I should let her rest.

This morning I was able to help her drink a little. She was not interested in eating, but had pooped so stuff is moving through at least. As best as I can tell, her crop feels hard and lumpy. Her abdomen feels squishy. Her breast bone is prominent and there is not a lot of muscle on either side. I think the source of the smell is feces under her tail. The day is beautiful here and much cooler, soft breeze. We just put her in the yard, which is shady. Put a small fountain of the electrolyte solution by her. She liked going outside. My sense is she may not be around much longer. Poor girl. The last few days were really hard on her. I will take her to the vet tomorrow if she makes it through today. The temp is supposed to keep dropping for the next 4 days, so that should help.

Today the weather was mild. She quietly sat in various places around the chicken yard. I tried to get her to eat and drink with very little success. Darn. Been kicking myself aorund the block for not contacting the vet again. She would occasionally show sings of getting better and then get more retiring. I kept thinking she would be ok. I think this last week has finished her off though. She will be the second hen we lost in this heat.